Image sensors are widely used in digital still cameras, cellular phones, security cameras, medical, automobile, and other applications. Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (“CMOS”) technology is used to manufacture low-cost image sensors on silicon substrates.
Most image sensors include a two-dimensional array of pixels that are used to capture images. Color image sensors—that is, image sensors capable of capturing color images—assign color to each pixel in the pixel array using a color filter array (“CFA”) coupled to the pixel array. In current image sensors, different types of CFA patterns must be designed for image sensors to meet different needs; this requires multiple silicon chip mask sets or the pixel array, as well as in multiple mask sets for the color filter array.